Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Framework Helps Address Problem Behaviors, Create Safe Learning Environments

The Notus School District is one of the smallest districts in the Treasure Valley, but that doesn’t make it immune from the youth behavioral health crisis that is affecting children and families across Idaho and the nation.

“I had a first grader that spent a week in children’s psychiatric care right before Christmas so it’s not just an adult issue or an adolescent issue,” Notus Superintendent Micah Doramus said. “We are seeing some significant impacts, even as young as four, five and six years old.”

One way the district helps students is by using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), an evidence-based school framework that focuses on teaching positive behaviors while addressing problem behaviors with a goal of creating safe and supportive learning environments for all students.

The district received a multiyear grant from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health to help implement PBIS in its elementary and secondary schools.

A POSITIVE APPROACH

For Notus Junior-Senior High Principal Jennifer Wright, the first word in PBIS is the key.

“We can discipline, discipline, discipline but the other component is bringing on the positives,” she said. “It’s also about celebrating and informing and using preventive and proactive approaches that gives them the tools they need to keep their behavior and well-being in check.”

PBIS gives schools and districts an approach that Doramus said is critical in reducing repeated negative behaviors and setting expectations. It’s working as Doramus, who also serves as the elementary school principal, and Wright have seen a decrease in student suspensions.

“It’s creating a common framework and a common set of language that’s consistent,” Doramus said. “Consistency is probably the biggest thing our kids need when they come in to school when many things in life are inconsistent. If they know that everything at school is consistent and the response is consistent, that helps them.”

Notus uses what it refers to as the “Four Rs” to teach students what are acceptable and desired behavioral traits. The Rs – respect, resilience, responsibility and readiness – are taught in the elementary school and continued to be used in junior high and high school.

“I really love that the sixth graders that walk across the street to go to seventh grade will hear the same language,” Wright said. “Kids who are kind of squirrely (about going to junior high) will know the expectations are the same. That’s been successful, especially for some of our kids who struggle with behavior.”

The benefits of PBIS stretch beyond behavioral health and into academics. Students learn better when there are fewer behavioral-related interruptions. The administrators say it’s becoming more common for students to hold their peers accountable for unacceptable behavior that impedes others’ learning.

A SUCCESS STORY

“One of our athletes had not been a very good student but sometime in the last year it clicked, and he wanted to be in class and wanted to be learning because he decided he was headed to college,” Doramus said. “This framework gave him a language to say ‘hey, you guys aren’t ready to learn. We need to be ready to learn. I’m here to learn. Quit interrupting my learning.’”

PBIS doesn’t just involve students and teachers. At every school board meeting, there is a segment where board members or administration can recognize people who display the traits of the Four Rs. It’s called Blue Ribbon Recognition.

There’s also an “I Spy” recognition program in the elementary school where teachers, students and parents can recognize good behavior. The “I Spy” submissions are read at the end of the day, allowing parents who are waiting in the pickup line to hear them. The high school recognition program happens at school assemblies and the right behaviors are celebrated.

“I overhear parents use the language now,” Doramus said.

The district is continuing to work to support students. It has a mental health counselor come to the schools to provide care for the students who need that extra level of support. That service was made possible by an additional support from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health. The Healthy Minds Partnership Technical Assistance Award the district received helped bring licensed clinical social workers to campus to provide care.

“Our partnership with Blue Cross Idaho Foundation for Health has been instrumental in our work over the last two-and-a-half years,” Doramus said. “The steps that we’ve been able to make moving forward from that work has allowed us to secure other funding sources to help us supplement that work. We likely wouldn’t have been in a place to be able to do that had it not been for the support of the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation.”